Syrian rebels free prisoners from ‘human slaughterhouses’ after Bashar al-Assad exit
The rebels broke through jails, where the government officials had fled, to free political prisoners detained by Bashar al-Assad for over 13 years.
Armed Syrian rebels, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), freed hundreds of prisoners detained by exiled President Bashar al-Assad in jails, which the detainees describe as “slaughterhouses”.
As the rebels swept across Syria, they broke through jails, where the government officials had fled, to free political prisoners detained by Assad since the beginning of ‘pro-democracy’ protests in 2011. Those freed included people who were believed to have disappeared since the outbreak of war and prisoners awaiting executions.
The 63-year-old Bashar Barhoum was supposed to have been executed after being imprisoned for seven months. It took a few minutes for Barhourm, a writer, to realise that the men who barged into his cell were not Assad's men but the rebels who came to set him free.
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“I haven’t seen the sun until today. Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, he gave me a new lease of life,” Barhourm told The Associated Press in disbelief after witnessing people celebrating Assad's overthrow in Damascus streets.
The writer couldn't find his personal belongings or mobile phone to inform his wife and daughters that he was alive and well.
Saydnaya military prison, north of Damascus, is known as the “human slaughterhouse”. Prisoners, including women and their children, screamed in fear as rebels broke through the facility. A report from Amnesty International notes that up to 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016, as dozens were secretly executed every week.
“Don’t be afraid. Bashar Assad has fallen! Why are you afraid?” a rebel fighter said as he tried to rush hundreds of women out of their jam-packed tiny cells.
Exiled Omar Alshogre, who survived three years of relentless torture from Assad's men, watched in awe as viral social media videos showed rebels freeing detained people.
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Anxious families search for loved ones
Families of prisoners and disappeared persons couldn't join the celebrations on the street and continued to wait outside prisons and security branch centres to search for their loved ones.
“This happiness will not be completed until I can see my son out of prison and know where he is. I have been searching for him for two hours. He has been detained for 13 years,” said Bassam Masri.
Heba told AP that she was searching for her brother and brother-in-law, who were detained while complaining about a stolen car in 2011 and disappeared since.
Torture in Syria's prisons
Human rights groups like Amnesty International say that torture, execution and starvation are used systematically against political prisoners in Syrian jails. Secret executions have been reported in over two dozen facilities run by the country's intelligence services.
In 2013, a Syrian military defector known as “Caesar” smuggled over 53,000 photographs that exposed inhumane conditions in Syrian prisons. Rights groups said that those photographs showed clear evidence of rampant torture and abuse.
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